
Eight to go for the gold
PRESENTLY, I am working as an Executive Assistant with Fritz Gaston, one of the four Commissioners in the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) .
But 42 years ago, our relationship was different.
I was a sportswriter then for Sports Weekly Magazine, he was a PBA player. Following the disbandment of U-tex, his first team in the pro league, he signed up with San Miguel Beer, in 1983, later on with Manila Beer and Great Taste until he retired in 1986 and pursued his masteral course at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM).
However this piece will not be about Fritz, I just mentioned about our relationship from interviewer -interviewee in 1978 when he played for the Youth team, and to being friends.
1983 was a special year for me, that was the year I exchanged I do’s with my ex- girlfriend, Marissa, January 15 to be exact at the Malate Church in Manila.
And Fritz was my best man, and he fetched me that fateful day from Mandaluyong, took his time driving that we were late a few minutes, maybe he was giving me a chance to back out and lose my bachelor hood, but then there was no way I would change my mind.
I was in love with Marissa, a Sandy Andolong look alike at that time while I was definitely a no look alike Christopher de Leon, but then she was also in love with me, sometimes I wonder why, but mutually in love we were for sure.
Applying simple mathematics, it means we have been married for 42 years already, 8 to go for the gold, which we intend to reach.
Fritz was in good company then because among my abays were former PBA players Frankie Lim, Ed Cordero, and Bambi Kabigting, the future husband then of actress Lotis Key.
Our ninongs also came from the world of sports, the late Gen. Pete Juachon, still a colonel then, Rudy Ledesma, high school coach of St. Bridget’s in the WNCAA, Arthur Lopez from Century Park Sheraton and my on and off running partner if he manages to wake up early in the morning, and Alex Rosario, rest in peace too, President of Manila COD Department Store but maybe more known as the father of Olympic swimmer Ral Rosario, another friend of mine.
In fact,Ral together with Ed, Hec Calma, Steve Watson, and Tac Padilla all became ninongs of our three kids, JM, the eldest, Janis, and Jemi, now no longer kids as JM was born the same year that we got married, December okay, so Marissa was definitely not pregnant at that time, just to get it on record.
But then this piece is not really about these sports people though they were part of our married life. By the way, it was Marissa who proposed marriage to me in 1982 in a stone bench at SM Makati, never mind how and why but that is the honest truth, you can even ask her.
Our marriage has been blessed, or we would not have reached 42 years of blissful and otherwise relationship and I am truly thankful that our paths crossed a few years earlier, she was on her last day of work in Manila COD and I was visiting the store, having worked there as a sales clerk from 1975 to 1977.
And had I not chosen that date to drop by Manila COD, I would not have even met her, so she was my destiny.
As is with long time married couples, we have had our share of arguments over small and big things though at this stage our lives and age, the arguments border on the petty, but I guess it comes with age.
The good thing, the thought of separation has never been in our equation, and will never be.
I say our marriage has been truly blessed , not just by the three good kids, and now a grandkid in Livi, now nine years old, but the fact that over the years, we managed to improve the quality of our lives.
We have our own humble home where we have been living since 1990, our kids all finished college, we have managed to travel, helped by the fact we have trip passes from PAL where Marissa worked for 18 years, a car, and a good corporate career for me and many years as a writer since 1977.
Definitely, we have a lot of reasons to be thankful to the Lord, 42 years is a lifetime already for some people, but for us, it has been long years of togetherness.
And looking forward to more years of being husband and wife, parents to our kids, and lolo and lola to our only apo.
Happy anniversary to us.